Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/418

 t a stop

to railroad building all over the United States, and Mr. Reid's enterprise and fortune went down in the general wreck.

But the work and money Reid put into the Astoria-Hillsboro line was not wholly lost.- Taking the matter up again in 1903-4, he was so far able to go ahead with the work of construction as to put engineers and a force of graders on the first section of the line west of Hillsboro, and make it ready for the rails and ties. And at this juncture, the Harriman interests seeing Reid was likely to succeed, inspired Mr. E. E. Lytle, who had constructed the Biggs- Shaniko line in eastern Oregon, to purchase out the interests of Reid and his stockholders, and go on with the road as a part of the Harriman system under the name of the Pacific Railway & Navigation Company. So that whatever credit is to be attached to the construction of this road into the Nehalem and Tillamook valleys, belongs to William Reid. Since disposing of the graded line in Washington county, Reid has again taken up the work of constructing a road from Seaside into the heavily timbered region around Saddle mountain east of Astoria, tO' haul out the timber and develop that region, and is utilizing his old grading for that purpose.

In addition to his railroad work, Mr. Reid was the first man to bring in foreign money to loan on farm lands and reduce the rates of interest. And without further work from him, William Reid is entitled to be recorded as having done a great work for Portland and Oregon.

Of independent roads, which are also in effect feeder lines to this Oregon system, may be mentioned the Sumpter Valley road, built by Messrs. Eccles and Nibley of Utah, from Baker City to the town of Prairie City and south- west towards Burns, now aggregating nearly ninety miles of track. This road was organized in 1890. The same parties have within the past year built eighteen miles of new road running up the Hood- River valley from the town of Hood River, and called it the Mt. Hood Railroad. Another important independent line is the Rogue River Valley road running from Jacksonville to Medford, and from there it is being extended to Crater lake and on to Klamath Falls by J. J. Hill ; and on this line develop the largest tract of sugar pine timber in the United States. This enterprise was started in 1891 by Mr. E. J. DeHart of Medford. Another important independent line is what has been called suc- cessively The Willamette Valley & Coast, "The Oregon Pacific," and The Cor- vallis & Eastern Railroad, running from Yaquina on the bay of that name, eastwardly via Corvallis and Albany to Idanha in the Cascade mountains. This road has had a checkered career. Commenced in 1880 by public-spirited citi- zens of Corvallis and Benton county, who first and last put about $100,000 of hard cash and labor into- its construction. It was turned over to one, T. Egen- ton Hogg, a promoter of great promise and little performance, who reorganized the scheme into its second name and issued $15,000,000 in bonds and $18,- 000,000 in stock on one hundred and forty miles of road and then failed and died, leaving his bankrupt road to be sold for $100,000 to A. B. Hammond. It has from the first been such a "misfit" that neither the genius of Villard, the energy of Huntington, nor the comprehensive mind of Harriman have been able to assign to it a practical and profitable place in the Oregon system. It is now doing a large business in hauling lumber, and must sooner or later find a useful and necessary purpose in the development of the country.

THE WORK OF MR. KOEHLER.

Besides these independent lines, the work of development by branches, feed- ers and extensions of the main system has been going on steadily for years, as population and business would justify. Many such additions have been added to the lines east of the Cascades, as well as in the Willamette valley, showing the purpose to cover the whole territory of the Columbia river watershed with